bethofalltrades

Today, KT, David and I saw two movies. Mamma Mia and The Dark Knight.

Hate musicals. HATE. KT and David put me in between them, in the middle of a row with people on all sides. I couldn't escape.

LOVED The Dark Knight. So much. That was nearly a perfect movie for me... shit blows up, good triumphs over evil, more shit blows up.

There was one moment in the movie that is my very clear favorite.



There are two ferries, one full of felons and one full of average citizens. They are stalled in the bay and they're both wired to explode. The ferry full of felons has the detonator for the bomb on the ferry full of citizens and vice versa.

If neither group pushes the button by midnight, both ferries blow up. But if one group pulls the trigger on the other, the one that pulled the trigger gets to live.

In the ship full of felons, a cop holds the detonator. There's a lot of debate and finally a very large, menacing man stands up and approaches the cop.

He speaks in a low, calm voice and says, "You know what needs to be done but you don't have the balls to do it. You don't want to get your hands dirty. Give it to me, I'll do what you should have done ten minutes ago. Give it to me. I'll do it."

The cop looks pained, but after a moment, he extends the box to the felon. The felon smiles and picks up the detonator...

... and throws it out the window into the bay.



Anyone who knows me well knows why that particular scene strikes a chord in me. It's hard to explain... I suppose it's the same thing in me that responded to one particular scene in Titanic. I couldn't care less if Rose or Jack bit it, but when the musicians argued "Why are we playing? The ship is sinking" and "We're playing because that's what we do. We're musicians" and then started playing again... I felt it.

Ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances doing The Right Thing is more heroic than the greatest superhuman feat.

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I hit upon the right word for my matching wrist tattoo, the one that sums up all the principles I need to remind myself of.

I considered "kindness," "patience," "happiness," "work," and "moderation."

The word I was actually looking for is "choice."

I can choose to be kind, I can choose to be patient, I can choose to be happy, I can choose to work hard, I can choose to drink too much, I can choose to eat too much sugar, I can choose to fuck around, I can choose to be a blight on the world and a pain to my fellow human beings or I can choose to be a help to them.

Now to find a Latin teacher who can tell me WHICH translation of choice is the best one.

... I kind of wish I could get away with doing it in Hindi or Sanskrit or Arabic instead of in Latin. A non-Roman alphabet language. But there's a part of me that feels that's a bit too poser-y. Tattoos in languages I have no connection to.

I am also going to expand on the key design. The arm is begging for it. I will probably go down to the place I had it done and jam with Mike the artist to come up with something... I'm seeing something in my head that covers most of my inner forearm and is swirly and vintage-looking and incorporates a penny. I have no idea how well a penny would tattoo. I guess I'll have to chat with him about that.

Ramble ramble. Movies tattoos. Love love.

Love,
Beth